Psystar emerges from Chapter 11, and still making applesauce

The infamous Mac-clone maker Psystar is apparently set to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and it seems that they are planning on getting right back into their previous routine with a new hardware offering to boot.

In an e-mail newsletter that went out to subscribers today, the company states that the Chapter 11 protection was "critical" to their daily operations, and that they are now ready to "emerge and again battle Goliath." More information is expected to be available "in the coming days" when they are formally discharged by the Bankruptcy court.

Along with the announcement, the newsletter also introduces Psystar's newest hardware offering, the Open(7), which "brings together OS X and Intel Nehalem Xeon technology" in what they are calling their "fastest and most quiet computing configuration." In addition, they are stating that all new systems will feature a new bootloader, called the Darwin Universal Boot Loader (DUBL), and mentioned plans of an open source release in the near future.

The e-mail was wrapped up with a simple anecdote: When life gives you apples, make applesauce. So this begs the question, are they referring to the fruit, or the company?

Thanks to Sean Wightman for the tip!

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Source: http://www.tuaw.com/2009/07/01/psystar-letter/

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The infamous Mac-clone maker Psystar is apparently set to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and it seems that they are planning on getting...

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MediaXYZ

So was this company actually in financial trouble, or did they just file for bankruptcy potection as a tool to slow Apple legal action? It is quite a coincidence that immediately after Apple gets permission to have it's case continue, that suddenly Pystar, who were about to go under, suddenly aren't.

July 02 2009 at 4:21 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

-wsn

I still think we will soon see retail kits go away.

SL will be non PowerPC as is, so no retail kit needed there.

I think in the future it will be a download (SL is supposed to be only 5GB, and that is only a movie or two) via iTunes or something, but you will have to prove in some way that it's going onto a mac. (small proprietary chip embedded on the main board or something).

If the download checks for an in house chip or cert or something that just says 'i'm a mac' (versus the crazy MS license # thing) then it will download and you can make a backup... then no retail kits need to be made for purchase, and using somebody's backup would be illegal.

I agree also that competition is good for markets, etc, but this is not a monopoly situation and Apple has been straight up honest since they pulled the clones when Steve came back. Apple's bread and butter is 'end-2-end' it just works, that is their value add. I was a switcher (during tiger) and it's why I am here.

Try stealing TiVo's software and putting it on your own DVR and making money from it. It also has some open source on it, but they have fought other Sat Co's for and won. (I think it was 190 million against echostar, but may still be pending)

Apple/Mac/iPhone is an end to end item (hardware and OS), and that is well know (EULA)... I think we will just see them close the retail box loop hole.

We'll see...

Cheers
-wsn

July 02 2009 at 9:37 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to -wsn's comment

charli

SL won't be a download. I already ordered the disc cause I got a new computer last week and could 'up to date' for the shipping.

maybe at some point when internet connections are a lot faster

as for the check system, they already have one that can tell if I have 10.5.1, .2 etc. so how hard is it to check if I have Leopard or Tiger and if I have an Intel chip. when I installed ilife on my old computer it could tell I was PowerPC and didn't update my imovie. so the systems are there.

I suspect that this upgrade is sans apps and that is part of why they dropped the price. that and the subtle dig on Microsoft over the Win7 prices.

July 02 2009 at 3:27 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Ethos

Wait so is everyone saying they're against competitiveness in the PC market?

So what they're packaging there own hardware and such? I dunno maybe I'm missing something here but I can't see how one company selling there own hardware with Mac OSX could be bad?

I say only assuming that they give the proper royalties to Apple, I'm aware atm that they're not paying Apple which I think is wrong/illegal aswell but both can profit from this. Apple is all about money and here's more for them.

July 02 2009 at 8:17 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Ethos's comment

charli

there are no 'royalties' to pay because Apple has no cloning program. in fact they straight up don't allow clones, as they legally can -- until their share of the personal computer market grows to an overwhelming point and then such ties will be abusive. which is part of why they aren't fighting for the major share. they want to be able to legally control their complete systems.

also there is an issue with whether the license for only end user use is valid. so far it hasn't been declared not. and whether Psystar is a reseller since they are building machines they then sell to someone else and did they violate the license.

plus the issue that Psystar never proved they bought the copies they say they are including with each machine or if they did a five finger. which is NOT hard to do on that software if you pick the right time of day to go in

and this is on top of the major DCMA violation they will face for the hack that gets past the system check in the OS software

July 02 2009 at 11:00 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

alansky

I hope Apple squashes them like a bug. They must be masochists!

July 01 2009 at 9:19 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Number_41

Dual BL eh?

Very similar to this that netkas just released? http://netkas.org/?p=113

LOL

July 01 2009 at 7:50 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

th0r615

Maybe if Apple made a mid-range desktop computer where one could switch out their GPU, RAM, Add and remove hard drives, ect... there wouldn't be a demand for a company that makes such a product.

July 01 2009 at 7:32 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

3 replies to th0r615's comment

Stenar

WTH! Didn't Apple get an injunction to prevent them from selling any FauxMacs until the court case is decided!??

July 01 2009 at 7:17 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

kakapo

I think they should be considering that they will be ground into mincemeat rather than making applesauce.

Here in Australia, we have a saying, "These guys are phuquing arse wholes". I am not sure if to translates too well, but I am sure you get the picture.

So, why aren't they ripping off V.I.S.T.A.? or V-SP-7/Much bigger market.

Oh, and by the way, I am with Johnny - F&#K newfiction
I call that "spam" Slime Posing As a Message....

Cheers

July 01 2009 at 6:33 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to kakapo's comment

Rob

I presume you don't really know much of the details of what this company does. They can't rip of vista because they ALLOW exactly what they are trying to do - install the OS onto thier own hardware. This company PURCHASES the OS license from Apple and then puts it on its own hardware (for cheaper than similar Apple hardware).

July 02 2009 at 4:10 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

derekknighttx

Get the popcorn, honey! This one's gonna be good.

July 01 2009 at 5:29 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Tom Lopy

ridiculous but interesting.

Problem with market economics is Apple is potentially capable of just assimiliating the company. But until then, good luck.

Tom

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July 01 2009 at 5:09 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

3 replies to Tom Lopy's comment